Master of Arts in English Course Descriptions

ENG 514 Graduate Writing and Research – 3 Credits
An introduction to graduate study, research, writing, and methods. In addition to discussing and studying the “best practices” of the literary and liberal arts profession, this course will introduce students to critical theory through the study of classic texts and other art forms.

ENG 515 Medieval & Renaissance Literature – 3 Credits
This course covers the most important literary movements of England from the Middle Ages to the early 17th century, emphasizing major canonical writers and works while giving attention to under-represented authors. The history of English—its major changes, dialects, and usage during these periods—is also treated.

ENG 516 British Literature from 1800 – 3 Credits
This course covers the major canonical authors and literary movements of England in the Romantic period, the Victorian era, the Modern age, and beyond. Attention is also given to noncanonical writers, including women and other historically under-represented authors. The history of English—its major changes, dialects, and usage during these periods—is continued.

ENG 517 Restoration & 18th Century Literature – 3 Credits
This course covers the most important literary movements of England from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th, emphasizing major canonical writers and works while giving attention to under-represented authors. The history of English—its major changes, dialects, and usage during these periods—is also treated. 

ENG 520 Language, Literature, and Writing in America Prior to 1900 – 3 Credits
This course examines language, literature, and writing in the United States from the revolutionary period through the nineteenth century. With attentiveness to both fiction and nonfiction texts, this course asks students to examine the rhetorical or stylistic choices that a writer makes, and more broadly, to consider how writers respond to their historical, political, cultural, or literary moment.

ENG 525 Modernism and Contemporary Literature – 3 Credits
A study of the literature of the twentieth and/or twenty-first centuries. This course promotes a deeper understanding of Modernist and/or Post-Modernist texts, as well as an understanding of the context in which the texts were produced and an understanding of the stylistic innovation often associated with these periods (e.g. stream-of-consciousness, theatre of the absurd, etc.). It may cover fiction, poetry, drama, and/or cinema.

ENG 526 - The Essay – 3 Credits
A study of the forms and techniques of the essay in English, with particular attention to essential literary nonfiction elements. This course promotes a deeper understanding of the essay form itself by studying the context in which essays are produced and conveying an understanding and appreciation of the form to readers.

ENG 531 Poetry Masterpiece – 3 Credits
This course focuses on a single substantial poem or a small group of poems by one author that functions as a unit (such as a sequence of poems or an individual collection). Students will study the primary work and its cultural context while attending to a wide array of historical and contemporary critical assessments, opinions, approaches, and theories. May be repeated up to six credits on different topics. Not open to students with credit for ENG 530A.

ENG 532 Prose Masterpiece – 3 Credits
This course focuses on a single substantial work of prose fiction or nonfiction. Students will study the primary work and its cultural context while attending to a wide array of historical and contemporary critical assessments, opinions, approaches, and theories. May be repeated up to six credits on different topics. Not open to students with credit for ENG 530B, ENG 530C, or ENG 530D.

ENG 533 Dramatic Masterpiece – 3 Credits
This course focuses on a single substantial work of dramatic literature. Students will study the primary work and its cultural context while attending to a wide array of historical and contemporary critical assessments, opinions, approaches, and theories. May be repeated up to six credits on different topics.

ENG 565 Film and Visual Rhetoric – 3 Credits
This course explores and develops visual literacy in advertising, art, textual design, and film. Visual rhetoric is approached from the perspectives of both analysis and design. Goals of the course include an understanding of how visual rhetoric interacts with verbal and written communication, and analyzing the implications of visual rhetoric for pedagogy.

ENG 566 Short Stories – 3 Credits
A study of the forms and techniques of the short story genre. The course may be offered as a survey of the form, examining its conventions and their development through history. It may also focus on one particular time period (short stories in the early 20th century), a particular technique (the short story cycle), or a shared theme. This course promotes a deeper understanding of the short story genre itself, the context in which short stories are produced, and methods for conveying an understanding and appreciation of short stories to other readers.

ENG 568 Novels – 3 Credits
A study of the forms and techniques of the novel through a particular theme, period, or stylistic classification. This course promotes a deeper understanding of fiction itself, the history and development of the novel as genre, and methods for conveying an understanding and appreciation of fiction to other readers.

ENG 575 World Literature – 3 Credits
This course examines classic and/or contemporary texts of world literature in translation, emphasizing not only the analysis of the literature and the culture from which it comes, but also the increasingly globalized nature of literature itself. Each course will have a particular focus or theme. Not open to students with credit for ENG/LST 605.

ENG 580 Poetry – 3 Credits
A study of the forms and techniques of poetry, with particular attention to essential poetic elements such as image, metaphor, voice, and other formal characteristics. This course promotes a deeper understanding of poetry itself, the context in which poetry is produced, and methods for conveying an understanding and appreciation of poetry to other readers. ENG 585 Special Topics 1–3 Credits Advanced courses on writers or subjects of special significance or interest to groups of students or faculty.

ENG 585 Special Topics – 1–3 Credits
Advanced courses on writers or subjects of special significance or interest to groups of students or faculty.

ENG 586 Independent Study – 3 Credits
This class gives students the chance to develop individual creative, critical, and research projects. Includes Honors Program research. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor, academic advisor, and division chairperson.

ENG 590 Drama – 3 Credits
This course explores conventions of drama and theatre, using Aristotle’s Poetics as the basis for beginning discussion. The course may be offered as a survey of the form, examining its conventions and their development through history. It may also focus on one particular type of drama such as tragedy, comedy, or theatre of the absurd. Performance theory and theatre history may also be emphasized.

ENG 620 Capstone Project – 3 Credits
This course is required by all students in the Capstone Project option of the M.A. in English. The two parts of the capstone project include the following: 1) the submission of a fully revised, highly polished seminar paper of at least fifteen pages originally written for a course in the M.A.; and 2) another substantial and integrative project or paper that is aligned with the student’s professional interests. Prerequisites: ENG 514 Graduate Writing and Research plus 27 credits of graduate English courses.